How much effort to maintain new dishwashers vs old?

[norgeway]

So its insane to use old appliances???

Well, I'm cooking on a 58 year old Westinghouse, washing clothes and drying them on 35 plus year old Hotpoints, my dishwasher is mid 80s....If I can get a hold of a 60s Kitchen Aid I will use that instead and I'm looking for a 50s or early 60s Westinghouse fridge to replace the 8 year old POS Hotpoint....I guess I'm ready for the asylum!!LOL....Oh yeah, I made a cake last week and mixed it in a 1957 Westinghouse stand mixer!

 

[norgeway]

I have NO USE for any new

Appliances, all my experiences with them have been bad!My NEW stereo is a 1965 GE,I play only vinyl, none of that new stuff for me, If I had a repair man close by there would be a round tube color tv in my living room....I could go on and on!

 

[norgeway]

A few moreI just made toast in my 1949

Westinghouse toaster, and vacuumed with my 1964 Compact vacuum.....I'm REALLY insane!

 

[rolls_rapide]

Bosch

I have a Bosch Logixx from 2003/2004, stainless steel tub. Generally, it cleans okay - but the alternating spray arm spraying pattern I think, is somewhat lacklustre. Tannin stains from tea and coffee seem to be rather difficult for this machine to remove. I had noted grease collected around the underside plastic lip of the central cylindrical filter. The corrugated transfer tube from water matrix to the tub, can be a problem area on this era of machine as grease and gunk can accumulate in it.

I've replaced the spray arms twice - first time was because the upper spray arm had a slightly different hole pattern which wasn't cleaning debris from the plates. Second time was because the arms were simply worn out (wobbling, clattering against the basket).

I replaced the complete dispenser assembly a couple of years ago, as the rinse-aid was pouring out. The rinse-aid dispenser plunger seal itself was not serviceable.

And the salt reservoir lid needed renewing too, it had simply cracked through time.

My mum has the 2013 bottom range Bosch - with plastic tub base and steel tub walls. It is noisier than mine but cleans very, very well indeed with a much more sensible alternating arm spray pattern. Grease build-up around the filter is not a problem. I do like this machine - yes, it's slightly flimsier than mine - but the performance exceeds that of mine.

Having had a look at other Bosch UK customers' online reviews, it appears a few have previously had a top end model which they weren't particularly happy with. Then they went 'bottom of line' Bosch and found more noise, less features, but good cleaning.

 

[yogitunes]

this topic seems to be a loaded question of sorts.....

and a lot of factors to consider....

between one machine being better than another....

a normally great machine could be troublesome, while a lesser rated machine could really perform well...

it also depends when picking an older or vintage machine, what condition is it in to start with....

granted a number of us have found some low use machines.....as well as ones still in the box, unused for decades...

and whats your mechanical knowledge or background to maintain it yourself...

 

[DADoES]

 
<blockquote>YogiTunes:  this topic seems to be a loaded question of sorts.....</blockquote> LOL, many questions here end up "loaded" even if they don't start that way!

 

[Unimatic1140]

You need to chill out...

New appliances are "NEW" and old one's are "OLD". Why would ANYONE want an appliance that is over 10 years old as a daily driver is INSANE!

I wouldn't have seen that post had so many members not marked it as offensive, thank you all for doing that.

As for you Bruce, thanks for insulting a large portion of the membership here. If it wasn't for many of us using 10 to 70 year old major appliances as daily drivers, this website you're spouting out on wouldn't even exist.

Personally almost all my daily drivers are 50+ years old along, does that make me insane too? I do have a few token 21st century models, but that's mainly for the novelty and rarely use them. None of them are so much better in performance than the best of the vintage machines.

You have the nerve to tell someone "Nope, wrong on all counts", when it's clear to most of us here that your "all counts" is nothing more than your opinion, not fact. You really lose us when you talk about vintage KitchenAid dishwashers being anything less than stellar in the performance department, those of us that use them daily know better. You may have had one bad experience, that was totally valid but that doesn't make it so for the rest of us.

I've seen you post things that are clearly wrong, questionable or blown way out of proportion to make your point on machines I and many others are currently using. There is no proof in long ago memories, there is concrete proof in using the machine the evening before.

 

[gusherb]

The Maytag Quiet Series 300 here just had its first part fail today, just about 12 years to the date from when it was first commissioned (just before Thanksgiving 2005). The handle broke, and when I googled "Maytag quiet series 300" just now, a replacement handle was the very first hit.

 

[jkbff]

Tolivac,

We didn't really have a lot of issues with Bosch dishwashers until we started installing units made here.

As far as I know, the 800 series and Benchmark Series are still made in Germany. That is generally what we sell because we haven't had a lot of issues over the years with them.

 

[ea56]

I happen to have the same Whirlpool dishwasher that the OP asked about. I wanted a basic dishwasher, I have no need for specialized cycles. I love this dishwasher! It is almost the same as the BOL 91’ Whirlpool dishwasher that was in our kitchen when we first moved here. I only use the 1 hour cycle with heated dry and it takes exactly 60 mins for the wash cycle the end and another 18-20 mins for the dry cycle the end, so each load is done in about 80 mins. I only rinse the cereal/salad bowls and pot/pans, but everything else goes in like it left the table/stove. I run it everyother day, so the food gets a chance to dry on things. Everything always comes out clean and dry. Only items with indentations that hold water will need a slight pass of a dishtowel to dry.

I wish the racks were nylon, and not vinyl, but otherwise this is a great buy for the money.
Eddie

 

[rapunzel]

Still on F&P dishdrawers here, dating back to 2003. Little maintenance required mainly because of simple and practical filter design. I also mostly use longest, hottest cycle which keeps everything clean. Every couple of months I take out the filter plates to check underneath and I have a good look at the wash arms. In all the years nothing has ever lodged itself inside the wash arms.

I think most people experience problems when they primarily use eco-cycles that use less water and lower temps. I've never once had to buy a dishwasher cleaner or deodorizer, ever.

From 1988 until '99 I had a GSD 2800 with soft food waste disposal. A small soft rubber plug sat inside the wash assembly below the bottom wash arm. It disintegrated over time and that did affect wash performance until it got fixed. However, the filter system never required any interventions. When I finally had to replace that machine I took the filter assembly apart and it was as clean as a whistle. [this post was last edited: 11/6/2017-21:18]

 

[passatdoc]

oops

While extolling the longevity of my 2001 Bosch 300 series DW earlier in this thread, I mentioned "no service issues ever". This is true, but I had to do one "repair": had some tines and crossbars on lower basket that began to rust through, so I replaced the lower basket via repairclinic.com. They no longer make the OEM 300 basket, so I bought a current 500 series basket which fit perfectly. It was also a bit of an upgrade, in that I now have a more flexible flatware basket, plus a handle in front of the basket to pull it forward (less stooping).

I had fixed the ends of some of the tines with a repair cap kit, but threw in the towel once the crossbars began to rust. Rust is no friend of DW pumps.

That said, I have now invested $175 in "repairs". Were it to need a major repair, I'd consider getting a new one.

 

[volsboy1]

I see, I was not the only person who got ticked off .

Nobody will ever tell me that vintage Kitchen aid dishwashers suck and if they do will they can go to hell.

I have had 5 or more and they all have been by far the best performing machines I have used.

I have a 8 year old Smeg dishwasher and it has been good no problems at all and its Made in Italy.

I also have a G.E. 1200 Pot-scrubber dishwasher that is probably around 24 years old.

They both have these Orbital wash arms. The Smeg is set up like the Frigidare Orbit wash

and the G.E. has two small arms attached to the end of the main arm with the tower and it washes like hell.

That G.E. is rare I cant find parts for it at all hardly but when it works it is a hell of a machine..

 

 

[washman]

I'm insane. I freely admit it.

 

[panthera]

Vintage Dishwashers, especially Potscrubber and KA

We have had several KA, both the real Hobart and the, well, Whirlpool version.

Our 15 (portable) does clean extraordinarily well and is all original. It, like all vintage KA dishwashers, demands considerable attention to detail in loading. I've figured out through the years how to load both racks such that everything comes out spotless - but I will not pretend for one second that it's fun or remotely like loading a RR Maytag or any Potscrubber or vintage Miele.

In the remotest.

As to the other KAs (the real ones, not the Whirlpools), yeah, well, OK, it's like this. Yes, they use very good components and great enamel. With the occasional exception of upside down dispensers (I'll never grasp that one if I live to be 400 years old) they were very well thought out.

But - they still required enormous effort to load right in order to get things clean. Yes, if you did it right, they worked perfectly. But, please, guys and gals - don't pretend you have the freedom in just throwing things into one such as a Twenty-Eight Hundred offers. Even Consumer Reports, who automatically crowned KA Queen of everything, admitted that. Through clinched teeth.

Nothing I've ever used matches an RR Maytag for flexibility, followed closely by a Potscrubber with multi-orbital arm (when a whirligig works, that, too).

OK, so the whole durability thing. Here's where we get into discussions. I think it's perfectly fair for me, a dude who replaces appliances used in (now) over 100 rentals regularly to compare and contrast. The BOL AMANA which Whirlpool has had on the market for some time now just plain hold up as well as do the extra specially expensive BOSCH and the TOL Whirlpool stuff. The mechanical Hotpoint/GEs last forever, but their cleaning performance was castrated by the decision to shrink the water level below their designed capabilities (which were not adjusted.) Throw an extra 2 liters of hot water into the wash cycle of a new Potscrubber (yes, I know they don't call them that anymore, but they are) at the beginning of the cycle and, wow! It'll clean enormously better.

 

I loved my Mieles in Germany. They were outstanding. I love my Potscrubbers here because of two reasons:

1) I refuse, absolutely refuse to prerinse or prescrub.

2) You can just throw stuff in and it comes out clean without spending half an hour checking the photos (yes, I did) you made up showing the 'keep-out' zones and placements you need to get equally clean dishes out of a real KA.

 

As to Whirlpool - there's no questions about it, their design really and truly has reached the point where they work and work well. I'll never be a fan of them, but a dishwasher which can stand up in a rental for five to seven years is a good machine. 

 

[arris]

New-vs-old

I'd purchased a Kenmore elite dishwasher 5 yrs ago, to replace my 94 kenmore ultra wash dishwasher, I hated the new one.... took over an hr in pots and pans, dishes would not get clean, nothing was dry, I won't leave any appliance running when either not home or going to bed, I got a KDI-18 a few years ago, it's the BEST dishwasher I've ever had !!!! 20 minutes in the normal cycle everything is washed and CLEAN, another 30-40 everything is dry.... an added plus is I like the sound it makes when washing..... like that of sitting in the back section of a plane... great dishwasher !!!